Brett Lauderdale discusses JBL’s GCW debut: “JBL and I have a mutual friend, who will remain unnamed”

Lauderdale chats JBL and Raj Dhesi.

While Game Changer Wrestling was in Atlantic City, New Jersey for their Homecoming weekend, there was a surprise appearance from WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield. He took aim at Effy and gave him two Clotheslines from Hell.

GCW owner Brett Lauderdale returned to The Business of the Business podcast and spoke about JBL’s arrival. He stated that they have a mutual friend that will remain unnamed. As of the podcast recording, there was nothing on the books for JBL as far as another appearance, but Lauderdale hopes he’ll be back.

I’m a big fan of J.B.L. and who’s not? JBL and I have a mutual friend, who will remain unnamed, and it’s one of those things, JBL is not exclusive to — what am I trying to say here? GCW kind of has a reputation for guys like JBL where, you know, when they’re kind of dipping their foot into the independent world for the first time, they wanna go somewhere they know they can have fun, somewhere that is going to treat them with respect and present them with respect… It’s somewhere where they know it’s gonna get the attention it deserves and they’re gonna be well-represented. So, that being said, like I said, we had a mutual friend and I had good conversation with JBL and yeah, I think JBL is interested in going out and having some fun right now so, GCW is one of those places where guys like him can have fun.

Well, I can’t say (if JBL will be back in GCW or not). I mean, I can say that I hope so. But, there’s nothing scheduled or announced at the moment but I would love to see JBL come back, at some point.

That was followed-up on by Lauderdale being asked about Raj Dhesi a.k.a. Jinder Mahal’s time in GCW.

Yeah, I mean, same thing. But it’s no secret. I was a big fan of Jinder (Mahal) for years in the same way that I’m a big fan of Omos and hopefully I get to work with him someday but, Jinder’s awesome actually and he’s one of those guys where, in WWE, it was such a tight structure and he was one of those heavily scripted characters I would say and that’s not meant to be a diss. He was just a very manufactured, WWE, Vince McMahon-style character, where everything that he did was kind of meticulously planned and we didn’t really get to see much of Raj (Dhesi) I don’t think. I think we just saw WWE Jinder and I think there’s a whole side to Raj that we still are learning about now and I think he has a lot to show us and I think, you know, what he’s done so far in GCW is really just scratching the surface as I think he gets more comfortable in our environment and in the indie environment which is he making the rounds now. I think he’ll start to feel more comfortable, being out of his comfort zone and I think he’ll start to do more things. I think we’ll have to continue to see more of Raj so, I’m looking forward to that.

Circling back to JBL, he made an appearance for AAA at Triplemanía XXXII. He accompanied Nic Nemeth to the ring for his Mega Title match. JBL then showed up to TNA Emergence to speak to Nemeth after his World Title match.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Business of the Business with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.

About Andrew Thompson 9403 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.